■BANGLADESH
PM expands Cabinet
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina added six new ministers to her Cabinet yesterday, seven months after she took office, taking the total to 44. A reshuffle had been expected for months, but came after the political party she heads, the Awami Legue, gave her a fresh mandate at a national convention last week. On Thursday Hasina named a new party presidium that ditched six senior leaders and ex-ministers who had been critical of her leadership.
■HONG KONG
Woman given wrong drug
A 37-year-old swine-flu victim from the Philippines, Dolores Bauzon, died on Monday after being given the wrong medicine by a Hong Kong private clinic, the Standard newspaper said yesterday. Bauzon, who developed a fever and sore throat a day after arriving in the territory on June 28, was given antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections rather than antiviral drugs used to tackle influenza, the report said. The newspaper did not identify the clinic that initially treated Bauzon, the second victim to die of swine flu in Hong Kong. Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection controller Thomas Tsang Ho-fai said Bauzon died because proper treatment for swine flu was delayed.
■CHINA
Students catch cheats
A group of primary school students who were tasked with supervising a civil service test proved their worth by catching 25 exam cheats, state media said on Thursday. The 18 students in Gansu Province uncovered the cheats while administering the test to 265 candidates for positions as judges, prosecutors and police officers, Lanzhou Morning News said. The students were brought in by the Liangzhou District government to supervise the test to ensure “openness and transparency,” the paper said. Other supervisors included officials and middle-school teachers, it reported, but added that the pupils were solely responsible for catching the cheaters.
■NEW ZEALAND
Pumpkin’s dad gets life
A man was jailed for life yesterday for strangling his wife in New Zealand before abandoning his three-year-old daughter at an Australian railway station, sparking an international manhunt. Nai Yin Xue, 56, was impassive as Justice Hugh Williams in the High Court in Auckland told him he would remain behind bars for at least 12 years before becoming eligible for parole. Last month the Chinese immigrant was found guilty of strangling his 27-year-old wife, An An Liu, at their Auckland home and dumping her body in the boot of his car. Liu’s body was discovered by police in September 2007, days after Qian Xun — nicknamed “Pumpkin” by police after the brand of her clothing — was found crying at a Melbourne railway station as her father fled to the US.
■INDONESIA
‘Sex cult’ leader jailed
The leader of a cult who delivered sermons in his underpants and demanded that his acolytes perform in sex orgies has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for blasphemy, a judge said yesterday. Agus Noro, also known as Agus Imam Solihin or “leader of the faithful,” was found by the South Jakarta district court to have blasphemed against Islam, lead judge Haryanto said. The court said Noro forced four married couples belonging to his Satria Piningit Weteng Buwono cult to perform group sex in his house in 2003 while he and two teenage followers watched. Noro also banned his followers from praying and fasting, it said.
■UNITED STATES
UN extends Sudan mandate
The UN Security Council on Thursday extended the mandate of UN peacekeeping troops in Sudan’s troubled Darfur Province for another year. That means that UNAMID, the joint UN and African Union peacekeeping operation in Darfur, will stay at least until July next year. In the unanimously adopted resolution, the UN’s highest decision making body emphasized that protection of civilians and the free access by aid workers to the region continues to have highest priority. UN troops joined the African Union troops at the end of 2007 to bolster their efforts to stem the killing in western Sudan, which has been called genocide by Washington and other governments.
■NETHERLANDS
Fire guts replica tall ship
Fire consumed a replica of the 17th-century flagship of the Dutch East India Company on Thursday. The three-mast tall ship, which was built in the 1980s, was moored at Holland Village in Nagasaki, Japan, for many years before it returned to the northern port of Den Helder in 2003 and became a tourist attraction. Broadcaster NOS said the fire broke out on the Prins Willem early on Thursday, but firefighters could not bring the blaze under control. The cause of the fire was being investigated, but NOS said it may have been started by an electrical short circuit. The original ship, built in 1649, was the largest ship of the trading company. It sank in 1662 off Madagascar.
■NORWAY
Grounded ship leaking fuel
A Chinese-owned dry-bulk vessel is leaking fuel after running aground near the coastal town of Langesund during stormy conditions overnight, rescue authorities said yesterday. The Joint Rescue Coordination Center said 16 sailors had been evacuated from the vessel and seven remained on the ship. The entire crew are Chinese nationals. “We have put a request to the company [operating the ship] to put pressure on the captain [to abandon the vessel] because Norwegian coast guard reports indicate the ship may not survive,” rescue mission spokesman Stein Solberg said.
■SPAIN
Six tourists killed in accident
At least six tourists were killed and 39 injured overnight in a traffic accident on the Costa Brava, rescuers said yesterday. Dutch sources had previously spoken of eight Dutch fatalities. Five of the injured victims were in serious condition. The accident occurred near San Pol del Mar as up to 67 tourists were returning from a day trip to Barcelona to their hotels in Blanes and Lloret de Mar. The bus carrying them slid while taking a curve, hit a private car, and then turned over. The tourists on the bus were reported to be mainly Dutch, but there were also British and German nationals.
■SPAIN
Anniversary prompts alert
Security forces are on maximum alert for the 50th anniversary of the armed Basque group ETA, blamed for bombings that killed two police officers and injured scores of people this week. ETA was founded on July 31, 1959, and has killed more than 825 people since beginning its violent campaign for an independent Basque state in 1968. Authorities blame ETA for two recent attacks — a deadly explosion near a police barracks on Mallorca island on Thursday and a car bomb in northern Burgos city on Wednesday. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Thursday that security forces were on “maximum alert ... to increase even more their efforts and to protect themselves from these vile murderers.”
■BOLIVIA
Animals in circuses banned
The government has enacted what animal rights defenders are calling the world’s first law prohibiting the use of animals in circuses. A handful of other countries have banned the use of wild animals in circuses, but the Bolivian ban includes domestic animals as well. The law, which states that the use of animals in circuses “constitutes an act of cruelty,” took effect on July 1 and operators have a year to comply, said the bill’s sponsor, Representative Ximena Flores. The law was proposed after an undercover investigation by the nonprofit London-based group Animal Defenders International found widespread abuse in circuses operating in Bolivia.
■JAPAN
Six US deserters at large
At least 12 US military personnel have deserted their bases in Japan over the past year and six of them remain at large, a Japanese foreign ministry official said yesterday. “Local police departments are still searching for six of them who are unaccounted for” after leaving their bases since July last year, the official said.
The US agreed with Japan last year to disclose information on deserters and has asked Japanese authorities to detain them and hand them over, following a series of crimes involving US military personnel. On Thursday, a Japanese court sentenced a 23-year-old Nigerian man who served with the US Navy to life in prison for killing a taxi driver last year in Yokosuka, the site of the largest US naval base in Japan, near Tokyo.
■CANADA
Groups denounce GM corn
Consumer and environmental groups on Thursday protested the government’s decision to allow the sale of a genetically modified corn. The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network demanded that Ottawa “immediately withdraw authorization for SmartStax,” a genetically engineered corn, “until Health Canada undertakes exhaustive and independent tests.” Greenpeace Canada also raised concerns, saying: “Releasing ‘SmartStax’ without evaluating safety, just a day after the release of the blistering report on the listeriosis crisis, confirms deep structural problems and government mismanagement of GE foods and crops.” SmartStax, produced by Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences, contains two genetic modifications increasing resistance to weed killers and six to protect it from insects.
■UNITED STATES
New stem cell rules enacted
President Barack Obama directed federal agencies on Thursday to enact new rules governing federally funded research on human embryonic stem cells. The rules, issued earlier this year by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), loosened some ethical requirements that scientists said could have cost them a decade of work. In March, Obama lifted restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research that had been put in place by former president George W. Bush, and asked the NIH to draw up new guidelines.
■UNITED STATES
Tiger escapes, tours Vegas
Police in Las Vegas say a tamed tiger that escaped from a magic act has been captured. Police say the residents in the city’s northwest section reported seeing the tiger wandering their streets on Thursday night. Police Lieutenant Les Lane says the cat belonged to Fernando’s Brothers magic act, and “they got it back into custody.” The cat was found in a resident’s backyard. Animal Control and Metro Police are investigating the incident.
BEYOND WASHINGTON: Although historically the US has been the partner of choice for military exercises, Jakarta has been trying to diversify its partners, an analyst said Indonesia’s first joint military drills with Russia this week signal that new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto would seek a bigger role for Jakarta on the world stage as part of a significant foreign policy shift, analysts said. Indonesia has long maintained a neutral foreign policy and refuses to take sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or US-China rivalry, but Prabowo has called for stronger ties with Moscow despite Western pressure on Jakarta. “It is part of a broader agenda to elevate ties with whomever it may be, regardless of their geopolitical bloc, as long as there is a benefit for Indonesia,” said Pieter
US ELECTION: Polls show that the result is likely to be historically tight. However, a recent Iowa poll showed Harris winning the state that Trump won in 2016 and 2020 US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris courted voters angered by the Gaza war while former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump doubled down on violent rhetoric with a comment about journalists being shot as the tense US election campaign entered its final hours. The Democratic vice president and the Republican former president frantically blitzed several swing states as they tried to win over the last holdouts with less than 36 hours left until polls open on election day today. Trump predicted a “landslide,” while Harris told a raucous rally in must-win Michigan that “we have momentum — it’s
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
TIGHT CAMPAIGN: Although Harris got a boost from an Iowa poll, neither candidate had a margin greater than three points in any of the US’ seven battleground states US Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the final days before the election, as she and former US president and Republican presidential nominees make a frantic last push to win over voters in a historically close campaign. The first lines Harris spoke as she sat across from Maya Rudolph, their outfits identical, was drowned out by cheers from the audience. “It is nice to see you Kamala,” Harris told Rudolph with a broad grin she kept throughout the sketch. “And I’m just here to remind you, you got this.” In sync, the two said supporters
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